... You realize that the entire discipline of economics beyond Econ 101 pretty much deals with studying market failure, right? Or that the perfectly free market models you learn about in intro are in no way applicable to the real world, anymore than physics equations that assume a perfect vacuum on a frictionless plane? The "free market," can't solve everything because power is distributed unequally and nothing stops those with power from deciding they want to discriminate against those with less. Even Adam Smith was pointing this out dude, in regards to labor organization. "There are many laws against organizing to raise the price of labor, but none against organizing to lower it."

I can't help but see your argument as little more than goalpost moving. NOBODY is saying that Russia changed votes except for you. NOBODY is saying that Russian hacking, if it played a role in the election, means the Russians actively went in and moved numbers around, and you're wrong in implying that that would be the only that should cause legitimate concern. Propaganda is a tool just as any other, and there's evidence that Russia made a concerted effort to spread their propaganda to influence the election and you're saying we should all be OK with that because "America does it too?" That's the biggest bullshit point-of-view I've ever heard, because you know you'd be calling for the actual death penalty for Clinton if the influence happened the other way around. We shouldn't tolerate it when we do it, and we shouldn't tolerate it when anyone else does it too. Надеюсь, вам на самом деле платят, и вы получаете приличные выгоды. Здоровья вам и вашей семье!

On the Dem side of the equation, after Bernie lost the primary pro-bernie sites were flooded with posts about how evil and corrupt and demonic hil-dog was, and that's why we should vote for Jill Stein or... the other guy whose name I can't even remember. Thing was, a lot of the sites these articles were hosted on were registered in places like Macedonia, Albania, and Belarus.

All I'm saying is there were an awful lot of concerned "American expats" living inside Russia's sphere of influence who were very invested in Hillary losing the election.

While I agree with you, that requires a large-scale view of the entire economy/sector as a whole, not just an individual case. At the risk of making an argument from anecdotal evidence, that's the kind of big picture thinking that I'm honestly not sure many conservatives are really... I don't want to say capable of, but eager to participate in. Most conservative rhetoric focuses on the small scale, on individual people, places, things, while forsaking a view of the way the whole system interacts, I feel this is a big reason you see, for example, so many poor and middle-class conservatives advocating for across-the-board tax cuts or, glob forbid, the "Fair tax." Their arguments rely on logic that, while it holds up in inter-personal situations like if you and me were settling debts, falls apart quickly when you start talking about a system of thousands or millions of people.

Eeh, that position isn't that hypocritical really; with less govt. aid for tuition there would be less people going to college, and so less demand => lower prices.

Of course, that's completely ignoring that if we did have taxpayer paid tuition there would be even fewer barriers to him going into graphic design, but I'm just saying that if you're in the "Govt. can never do anything right," club, it's a position that holds water.

It really depends on how you define "Rip off." If you define it as other nations not providing equal (or even proportional) military representation I can sort-of understand where you're coming from, but they only do that because the U.S. is going to be the biggest military power anyway. If we're going to be a massive military infrastructure capable of protecting our interests the world over regardless of NATO, our interests within NATO can put less money into defense spending and more money into stuff that helps them remain our interests. You may see it as unfair, but we do benefit from protecting our NATO allies. Besides, even with our gigantic military, we still spend only three percent of our GDP on our military (article uses 2014 numbers). Yes other nations spend less, but even if they did bring their spending levels up to ours the distribution really wouldn't look much different than it already does. Plus I doubt they're going to stay so low with Russia doing their thing over there.

Yeah, well, it was put together to keep the Soviet Union in check, but same shit at this point, Eastern Europe's still in fear of an imperialist force that speaks russian. It's just concerning that there's a lot of anti-NATO sentiment going around lately, which definitely, honestly, 100% guaranteed has absolutely nothing to do with the friendly Russian government's activities and propaganeducation, no-sirree!

You mean the Anti-semitic, Nazi (((Jew))), George Soros? Oh how I HATE him! I heard (from a true, legit, 100% honest facts REAL NEWS site) that he actually told Hitler how to do the holocaust! It's true! Why is the left so fascist?

Well it may be time to do SOMETHING about the bear, as it just ate Ukraine's leg, is taking a bit too much interest in the Baltics, and has been talking about moving nukes into Kaliningrad Oblast.

It's foolish to dismiss Russia as a non-threat when they're so clearly gearing up for conflict in Eastern Europe. The only nation who wants, as in actively desires, a war with Russia seems increasingly to be Russia herself.